Line crew members wear climbing irons to facilitate in ascending a pole and to assist in safely remaining in position on the pole. These climbing irons, which are usually strapped to the line crew member's boot, are equipped with sharp-pointed gaffs that penetrate the wooden poles. This penetration of the gaff into the wood provides support for the line crew member and facilitates both climbing of the pole and stability once in a work position.
When line crew members have descended from poles, they would generally prefer not to unstrap their climbing irons but to retain these in position. However, on the ground an exposed, sharp-pointed gaff presents a hazard to the line crew member and immediate surroundings. Line crew members have accidentally injured themselves and others with these exposed gaffs. Moreover, the gaffs themselves can become blunted by contact with hard surfaces in the normal course of a line crew member walking over pavement or hard ground surfaces. A blunted gaff, being less able to penetrate a wooden pole, in itself also presents an increased risk of injury. Thus, some employers have, as a matter of policy, required that their line crew members either remove the climbing irons when they are no longer needed or that the sharp gaffs be covered until they are once again needed.
Several gaff guards have been developed, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,951 is directed to a gaff guard of resinous material that slips over the gaff and clips onto the back face of the leg iron. These clips have the advantage of being light-weight and easy to use but they suffer the significant disadvantage of being easily dislodged in use and are consequently easily lost.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,710 is directed to a metallic gaff guard that surrounds the gaff with a conical-shaped coiled spring with clips that clamp onto the leg iron. Again, like the gaff guard of U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,951, the guard of U.S. Pat. No. 2,497,710 is lightweight and easy to use but is also relatively easily dislodged and lost. In an alternative embodiment, this latter patent shows a gaff guard that can be clamped to the leg irons more securely than by clips. However, in order to remove this gaff guard from the gaff, the clamp must be loosened by unscrewing. Further, since the guard must be removed when not in use, it is also liable to be lost.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,296,074 shows a gaff guard that is attached to the leg iron and that is equipped with a spring. The guard assembly includes a means for attachment to the leg irons, which is in turn attached to one end of a spring. A metal plate extends from the other end of the spring and ends in a socket which covers the gaff. To remove the gaff guard, the socket is removed by elongating the spring vertically downward and pulling the socket from the guard. The socket, metal plate and spring assembly can rotate 180 degrees about the point of attachment to the leg iron so that the socket may be clipped onto a hook which is attached to the leg iron. While this device provides a useful alternative to those gaff covers that must be completely attached or completely removed, it still has the disadvantage of having an exposed spring which is susceptible to being snagged onto equipment, underbrush, etc. in normal use and thereby being damaged.
A need exists for a gaff guard that will provide safety and convenience so that it would be effective in covering the gaff point while the gaff is not in use and could also be stowed securely and conveniently out of the way while the gaff is in use. Furthermore, the gaff guard should be rugged and capable of withstanding normal wear and tear.